Posted by 
Creative education: We must rely, in the UK, on our great strengths of knowledge and creativity
By Nick Sturge
There has been a shift over the last 20 years or so to educate young people rigidly focussed on outputs, in a homogenised process: tests every few years, a national curriculum and league tables.
I think that risks stifling the creativity that this country needs in its future workforce and reduces the chance of really inspiring young people to fulfil their potential. Our education system should be flexible to accommodate the differing needs of people – and regions of the country.
Too much parental choice of schools – as recent research from the University of Bristol and the University of London has concluded – increases the social divide thereby increasing the pool of young people who feel disenfranchised and disengaged with education and society as a whole.
There are probably other factors which increases this group: perceived lack of jobs, the expectation that opportunities are delivered on a plate (with the advent of the internet, electronic gaming and hundreds of TV channels, we are getting too used to sitting and waiting for the answers to be delivered to us), the apparent safety net of the welfare state which leads to lack of aspiration and lack of self confidence.
Other research suggests that Europe will be short of labour by 2020 – so we need all our young people to be capable and willing to work. As an aside, that also makes the concept of working to 70 or 75 more viable – which is just as well, given that’s what we’ll need to do to sustain our pension system.
A successful economy – especially one that has to evolve and react to the increasingly rapidly changing global environment – has to have a diverse labour force, with people in jobs that match their skills as far as possible. Our manufacturing base has decreased and will probably continue to do so and we must rely, in the UK, more on our great strengths: knowledge and creativity.
I’m an electronics and computer science engineer by training and we need more engineers but people are not inspired to be engineers, and those that are are destined to be back-room engineers rather than entrepreneurs, unless inspired, empowered and enabled to go further.
Lord Sainsbury, formerly the Science Minister, believes that if you motivate talented engineers by sending them to a top business school to get an MBA, you will make brilliant leaders. He has put his own money into doing this and proved it. Motivating and enabling people in education can have very positive effects.
So the key to all of this, I think, is inspiring young people to achieve, open their eyes to the different opportunities that exist, that they need to push themselves to try different things (jobs, lifestyles, countries) in order to find the right career.
We must open their minds to different ways of thinking so they are motivated and understand that it is worth making an effort to better themselves.
One aspect is in the content of the education we provide. We should minimise the amount we force students down vocational choices too early: that is too dangerous.
General (i.e. broad) education with the opportunity to explore different subjects in detail should be in place for as long as possible in our education system, alongside development of life skills and experience.
Directors – of businesses, public sector or third sector organisations – must, by law, make decisions for the long term. An organisation’s sustainable success is entirely dependent on its people. Therefore, directors must invest – in some form – in the education of our people, from school, university and the early years of employment. We have a responsibility to do this and not rely on teachers in schools and universities to produce our employees.
Directors must invest in supporting all of this for the long term: mentoring, inspiring them, enlightening, motivating students; supporting school teachers & school managers. And this must be across class and culture boundaries.
This is why the Institute of Directors is supporting Ablaze Bristol, a registered charity formed and supported by Bristol’s business community to connect the enthusiasm and commitment of business to education and help improve aspiration, achievement and attendance in our schools.
Further reading
Creativity is about being comfortable with uncertainty – better, it’s about being *inspired* by uncertainty, which creative, entrepreneurial people see as opportunity and adventure.
However, since the National Curriculum in the mid-1980s and increasing testing and league tables, creativity has been increasingly difficult to arrange for in our schools.
Without a willingness to take risks, spend time on things that may come to nothing, follow hunches and get totally absorbed in something you’re interested in – all of which must sit uneasily with the predictability of ‘teaching to the tests’ that all too often happens in school – where are we going to get our next entrepreneurs from?
It’s depressing, but I agree with Nick – business can and should help inspire and engage the young. The only thing is this is not really about creating great jobs – it’s about creating great people. So there is that caveat.
I agree too.. I have just finished reading a great book titled, “Lives of Passion, School of Hope: by Rick Posner which is about the option of an alternative school where children can be taught in a classroom that promotes passions and hope. There is a school in Colorado that has been using this model in their teaching and have had enormous success rates. For example the allumni, who are now all adults, have all grown up to be responsible, successful, lifelong learners. This is the type of education that I would like to see implemented in my child’s school.
Thanks for the comment Al.
You’re absolutely right that students should be encouraged to think of all forms of employment: self, start-up or employee.
However, we need all of these types so the education system needs to be flexible enough to produce people that employers need. There’s no single “perfect” output of a school – students need to find what’s right got them.
That’s the flexibility, in my view.
cheers.
I agree with much of what is said here, especially about the need for education to be more flexible and broad based.
What I would add is that we need to get away from the idea that schools exist to meet the needs of employers. Such a paradigm – which comes through in all government statements on schooling – reinforces the employer-employee model as the primary “reality” in the world of employment.
My own view is that we should be empowering young people to think more broadly about “work” and that, specifically, self-employment should feature much more prominently in the options presented at school.
Schools don’t exist for employers. They exist for the students.